Attendance
As part of our ongoing efforts to support student attendance, students who accumulate 10 days and subsequently 20 days (or more) of absences from school will receive a letter home.
For support, please reach out to KES Social Worker, Jessica Fulton at jfulton@klschools.org.
Incoming Kindergarten Orientation for Parents
Families with a child turning five years old on or before December 1, 2025 are invited to attend our Kindergarten Orientation, held at KES on Wednesday, March 5, 2025, at 7 p.m. Snow Date: Wednesday, March 12. Information about Kindergarten Registration will be provided.
This evening presentation is for parents/caregivers only.
Screenagers: Elementary School Edition
Join KLSD and the Elementary School PTOs for Screenagers: Elementary School Edition on Thursday, March 18, at 6:30 PM at Bedford Playhouse. General admission tickets are $10, including popcorn and a post-event reception.
The evening features a film screening, a Q&A with KLSD Director of Technology Chris Nelson, and resources from Wait Until 8th, KLSD, and Bedford Books. Donât miss this chance to learn and connectâget tickets here: https://bedfordplayhouse.org/movies/screenagers/
Community Read: Your Name Is A Song
"Frustrated by a day full of teachers and classmates mispronouncing her beautiful name, a little girl tells her mother she never wants to come back to school. In response, the girl's mother teaches her about the musicality of African, Asian, Black-American, Latinx, and Middle Eastern names on their lyrical walk home through the city. Empowered by this newfound understanding, the young girl is ready to return the next day to share her knowledge with her class. Your Name is a Song is a celebration to remind all of us about the beauty, history, and magic behind names."
Embracing the diversity of our names is one of the first steps we can take to show our appreciation of diversity and inclusion. Everyone has a name and every name has a story. Your Name is a Song focuses on the many stories and ways we can all connect by helping children take pride in their many identities and to utilize the opportunity to learn from others. This book lends itself to countless invaluable discussions about cultural norms, languages, unconscious bias, and much more. Most of all, Your Name is a Song is focused on showing respect for ourselves and all others.
Honoring Black History Month
A special program featuring AFRICAN RHYTHM TAP will take place this month exposing our students to the sounds and traditional cultural influences of West Africa as they intersect with the American art form of tap dancing. This supports our goal at KES to highlight diverse cultural art and performance traditions contributing to the world around us.
Valentines for Veterans Program
We will once again this year participate the 'Valentine's for Vets' program. The Valentine's for Vets program gives our students an opportunity to create Valentineâs Day cards for our local veterans, letting them know we appreciate everything theyâve sacrificed, and that they arenât forgotten. The Valentineâs Day cards will be delivered to local Veteranâs organizations and the Montrose VA Hospital.
Responsible Decision Making in Grades 1, 3 and 5
We will discuss responsible decision-making: the ability to make caring and constructive choices about personal behavior and social interactions. Children make many decisions during the course of the day that greatly impact friendship and the KES Community. We will review specific and relevant scenarios that can be difficult for students. We will discuss how to evaluate the benefits and consequences of various actions for personal, social, and collective well-being. Lastly, we will review what makes it challenging to do 'the right thing' even when we want to.
Winter Benchmarking
As per our Response to Intervention District Plan mandated by New York State, benchmarks, or screenings, will begin in mid-January for students in grades K-5. The assessments are administered as a whole group and individually, depending on the grade and subject area. The results of the AIMSweb screening, along with other school data (Running Record, Topic Assessments, etc.) will be reviewed by the KES RTI Team (Principal, School Psychologist, Interventionists, Classroom Teachers). If your child qualifies for services, changes level of services, or exits services based on the criteria outlined across the district, you will receive a parent communication by February 11.
Elementary Progress Reports K-5
Classroom Teachers and Special Area Teachers are completing progress reports for our students. Progress Reports will be made available on February 14 via the Parent Campus. You will receive a Connect Ed message when the reports are available for viewing.
The progress report reflects your childâs progress in relation to the current NY State Standards. Student performance is reported on a continuum from beginning to secure for the specified time of year. As the year progresses and as children move from one grade level to the next, schoolwork becomes more challenging, and expectations increase accordingly. Therefore, the assessment indicators -beginning, developing, approaching secure, and secure- may vary as the student moves from semester to semester, or from year to year. Thus, a rating of âsecureâ may change in a particular area over time. Due to the pacing and/or complexity of the curriculum, some indicators may not be expected at the beginning or middle of the year, therefore, you may see NE, indicating a standard is not expected for that time of year. (See Progress Report Rating Scale below.)
The grade reporting system includes information about your childâs approach to learning as a whole (work and study habits), and their progress in academic areas. Within each academic category, there is an âAt-a-Glance' description of the content area topics that are addressed at that time of year, as well as the standards that are being assessed. Teachers use a variety of methods to determine strengths and areas that require attention and support. The teacher comments section aims to give you a holistic view of your child as a learner and address specific learning goals.
Katonah-Lewisboro values ongoing communication between home and school. While there is one dedicated parent-teacher conference in our school calendar, families and teachers can reach out at any time to set up additional communication. This report may be a resource for helping students set goals as they seek to advance to the next level. We will continue to help all children grow at their own level of ability and readiness. We remain committed to your childâs success and creating a positive elementary school experience.
K-5 Curriculum Updates
Each month, we will be providing curriculum highlights from each grade level. Please know that these are snapshots and do not reflect all the curriculum and learning in the classroom.
Students in kindergarten will continue to strengthen their reading powers as they read and reread to build fluency and comprehension. This work will be supported as children further develop their phonemic awareness skills by listening for individual sounds, or phonemes, in words. They will not only blend (put together) and segment (separate) phonemes, but will also work on adding, deleting, and substituting phonemes in words. As children write to teach others, they are working through the writing cycle to plan, illustrate, write, and share their 'How To' books. Craftsmanship is a priority as children write with their reader in mind. Kindergarteners will practice modeling with math as we explore addition and move on to subtraction. Students will represent and persevere in problem solving by using objects, fingers, drawings, acting out situations, or creating written equations. In science we will explore Forces and Motions using a variety of hands-on activities which will allow students to investigate and build their own knowledge about what happens when forces are exerted on objects.
Students in first grade will continue working with nonfiction text sets during the reading workshop. Each day, students will read and talk about the books in their text set with a partner. Students will use these text sets and the classroom library to explore topics they are interested in and could write about during a writing workshop. In math, students will learn strategies to count beyond 100. These strategies include counting by 10s, counting on a number chart to 120, and counting on an open number line. This knowledge will be helpful to prepare for our Rocking Through the 120 Day Celebration in March. In science, students will continue their work as light and sound engineers. Students will explore light sources and shadows. This work will lead into some fun exploration work around Groundhog Day. The short, but busy, month will also include fun celebrations such as âFootball Fridayâ on Friday, February 7 and an early Valentineâs Day celebration on Thursday, February 13.
Students in second grade have been learning how to write an opinion letter in writing workshop. For Valentineâs Day, the children will be writing letters to special people in their lives. These letters will be filled with kind thoughts, happy memories, and loving words- as well as clear opinion statements with evidence to support their feelings. We look forward to Special Personâs Day when students will read their letters to their guests of honor after a musical performance in the gym. In reading, students have been working on fluency- including intonation and inflection. We are grateful to have so many amazing books in our classrooms to help us practice! Students are using these same helpful reading skills in solving word problems in math. Solving multi-step addition and subtraction stories is the goal. Students have also been rolling up their sleeves during science exploring landforms and how they change over time. Second grade geologists are always eager to ask questions and investigate! Weâre also showing a lot of enthusiasm and interest in economics. This social studies unit helps our students understand the difference between needs/wants and goods/services. Itâs fun to learn about the different ways goods are brought to our communities- and the work it takes to be successful!
Students in third grade will finish our class read-aloud, Because of Winn-Dixie. They will spend the last few chapters examining the story's climax and how the main character faces major challenges, resolves conflicts, and learns important life lessons. In writing, third graders will explore characters' emotions and traits in digital stories and picture books, examining how characters evolve throughout their narratives. Students will also study biographies to analyze what makes notable people special, supporting their observations with textual evidence. In third grade math, students focus on mastering addition and subtraction with whole numbers up to 1,000, using strategies like partial sums and differences based on place value. Students learn to break down numbers into smaller components for both addition and subtraction to make calculations more manageable. In social studies, third graders are continuing their research project exploring various countries around the world. Students have been studying multiple aspects of their chosen country's culture, including geography, climate, population, capital city, language, food, traditions, customs, holidays, celebrations, music, arts, and leisure activities. The students will showcase their learning through presentations to their families on Friday, February 21st. In science, students investigate environmental adaptations using models and case studies to understand how traits become advantageous or disadvantageous over time. These investigations culminate in written scientific explanations before they transition to a biomimicry engineering project where they will design robotic structures.
Students in fourth grade are wrapping up a cross-curricular unit in ELA, in which will be utilizing research skills including note-taking, synthesizing, and we will finalize our research by presenting the Living Wax Museum. By using our nonfiction research skills, alongside the writing unit, Boxes & Bullets, students will write and publish argument essays in which they make the argument for why the historical or important contemporary figure they studied should be included in a wax museum. In math, students will continue to develop their understanding of fractions by exploring problems around adding and subtracting fractions. In social studies, students are excited to begin learning about the events that led up to the Revolutionary War.
Students in fifth grade will be starting a math unit on computation with fractions. Students will start by adding and subtracting fractions and then move on to multiplying with mixed numbers. In ELA, students will be honing their skills at writing powerful literary essays. A trip to the Westchester Legislature in White Plains, has been planned for early in the month. This will augment the social studies unit on government and how laws are made. In science, fifth graders will continue their study of matter-- atoms, molecules, substances, mixturesâas they take on the role of food scientists. Parents will also be invited into the classroom to work with their fifth grader on engaging Valentine STEM activities this month. Details to come!
This Month in General Music
In Kindergarten, students will continue to demonstrate proper mallet technique while learning to play various songs on the Bell sets. Students will be performing in small groups to help reinforce playing music as an ensemble. Students will continue to differentiate and explore vocal qualities (speak/sing/whisper/shout) through song and dramatic play. Additionally, students will learn what the role of the Conductor in music and practice conducting the class in simple quarter note rhythms.
In 1st grade, students will continue to explore note reading through Orff instruments, learning to identify and play notes on the staff while interpreting simple rhythms. They will also study orchestral instrument families through Peter and the Wolf, understanding the role of each family (strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion) and connecting music to emotions and storytelling. Additionally, they will perform songs about kindness for the sharing assembly, and celebrate the African influence on music in the Americas, exploring rhythms from North America, the Caribbean, and Latin America.
In second grade, students will demonstrate their knowledge of proper mallet technique by playing various songs on Orff instruments. Students will continue to learn to maintain a steady beat while playing a simple broken bordun (using two mallets to play an alternating pattern between two notes) on an Orff instrument. Additionally, students will explore and influential contemporary African American composers and musicians. Lastly, students will practice and prepare songs for their upcoming Special Persons Day.
In 3rd grade, students will continue to master their recorder technique, performing songs with the notes B, A, G, D, and C, while focusing on developing a clear tone. They will also perform multicultural songs for the Country Crest assembly, adding expression and dynamics to their performances. Lastly, students will explore jazz music, honoring the contributions of black musicians like Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Ella Fitzgerald.
In fourth grade, students will continue to learn the basics of playing the Ukulele Learning to play âOde to Joyâ âMary had a Little Lambâ and âTwinkle Twinkle Little Starâ. Students will be playing together in small and large groups. Additionally, students will begin to prepare for the Fourth grade play âOf Mice and Mozartâ by learning and practicing the songs in class. Lastly, students will explore and research influential contemporary African-American composers and musicians.
In fifth grade, students will continue to learn the basics of playing the Guitar. Building off their prior knowledge and learning of Ukulele last year, students will explore the similarities and differences between the two instruments. Students will learn chords and melodies along with proper playing technique on the guitar and play in small and large groups. Additionally, students will play in 2- and 3-part harmony on the guitar, developing and strengthening their part dominate playing. Lastly, students will explore and research influential contemporary African-American composers and musicians.
This Month in Physical Education
Are you a NY Rangers fan? Islanders fan? Or maybe you're a Buffalo Sabres fan? The month of February in PE will consist of a fun and exciting floor hockey unit! Students will be engaged in a variety of stations combining fitness and hockey skill work including stick handling, passing and shooting. As the month goes on and the students' skills progress, they will participate in grade appropriate modified and lead up hockey games such as Pirates Hockey, Scatterbrain Hockey, Backyard Hockey and 7 on 7 Hockey. Our hockey unit will also include a fan favorite - Scooter Hockey!
This Month in Library
In celebration of Black History Month, the KES Library is excited to highlight the incredible contributions of contemporary Black Americans who are making history today! From inspiring athletes and activists to groundbreaking scientists and entrepreneurs, these individuals are shaping the world with their talents and dedication. We canât wait to explore their stories.
Weâll also spotlight amazing Black authors and illustrators like Christian Robinson, Oge Mora, Kwame Alexander, Vashti Harrison, Kadir Nelson, and more! Their books reflect diverse experiences and voices, helping young readers see themselves in the pages while understanding the importance of representation. We look forward to sharing these wonderful books with our students!